As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
In certain settings, one or more information handling systems may be configured within an enclosure that forms a rack (e.g., a server rack), and multiple racks may form a data center or an information handling center. The physical environment, especially the temperature of the data center is typically under strict control. One or more cooling units may be typically provided to control the temperature and humidity in the data center. For example, in a typical chilled water facility, for example, where large air handling units (AHU) pressurize a raised floor, energy is used by the AHU to transport chilled air to the server and heated air back from the server. Energy is also used remotely at the chiller plant to chill water for use around the facility, at the outside condenser for ultimate heat rejection, and for transporting fluid (e.g., water) to and from the chiller and condenser. As the AHU uses energy to move air, it also adds heat to the facility that must be removed through the chiller and condenser. The open, raised floor environment is often accompanied by a large over-provisioning of AHU's due to poor and unpredictable airflow dynamics that create hot spots. Many data centers end up over-provisioning to cool these hot spots and/or use much more energy than needed in chilling the air to temperatures lower than necessary.